I’ve been a big fan of the Drift Stealth camera for a couple years now. I take most of my on-the-water videos with it and even set at just 720 dpi the videos look fantastic on a 40 inch large screen television.

Today I received the new Drift Ghost model. It operates pretty much just like the earlier one (which is nice since I won’t have to relearn much of anything) but is a much smaller and more compact unit than the Stealth unit. Not that the older one was large by any means, but the new Ghost model is no larger than a pack of playing cards. This will make it even easier to mount in various locations.

The Ghost does have some nice new features among them the “zoom-in” and “zoom-out” feature will be quite useful. It’s also completely waterproof down to about 13 feet. I don’t submerge mine and never had any water issues with the Stealth, but this’ll give me a lot more peace of mind in heavy spray or a rainstorm.

The remote is where another big change has been made. If I had any complaint about the Stealth it regarded the fact that you couldn’t see if the camera was recording or not without actually looking at the side screen on the camera. More than once I failed to turn off the recording mode with the remote and returned to the dock with an hour of video that I didn’t want. The Ghost renders that situation mute, as the remote now has an “on-off” (red/green) light on the remote itself. Sweet.

The remote is a lot larger than the older one. About twice as large. However, in this instance bigger may turn out to be better since the buttons are larger and easier to hit in cold weather or while wearing gloves. It’s also shaped so you can wear it on your wrist, if you want. A wrist strap is included.

It carries the same internal noise cancelling microphone as the Stealth, but I plan to add the external mic so I can position it closer to me when the camera is set a bit off.

The large capacity battery is now standard and is simple to install on or off the water.

The unit ships with several mounts of various type and style. I’ll just add a small nylon RAM ball to the side and use the matching RAM mounts on my boats as I did with the earlier model.

The Ghost will record video at 720, 960 and 1080FPS, has photo and photo burst modes, a time lapse mode and will even operate in a combination of these.

On-screen playback remains standard, although now with a larger screen. The camera is Wi-Fi equipped and several apps are said to be nearly ready for release.

Cost was around $400 but is likely to drop a bit as more of these get into the dealer’s hands.

I don’t sell them nor have any interest in those that do. I’ve just had good success with mine and would like to see more kayak fishermen carrying a camera of some sort. If you want to shoot video, this is certainly one of several very good ones on the market for 2013.

Tom, to add an external mic it appears you will have to use the non-waterproof camera back to get access to the internal jack. Do you plan to waterproof it somehow or are you in an area where you don't have to worry about it getting pounded with big salty waves?

There is another camera back included in the package which has what would appear to be waterproof junctions for an external mic and USB connection.

I don't submerge my camera so I really don't know how waterproof it is. I can say that my older Stealth model, which was not advertised as being waterproof, carried an external mic for the past couple years in all sorts of rain and splash and not once did I have a problem with it.

Tom, that is the "non-waterproof" back that I was referring to. That back would not work for me in conditions where waves are breaking over the camera. Even if it was waterproof you would still have to have some kind of jack that sealed off the opening where you removed the little rubber plug.

Uno, there is no optical zoom on the camera. The camera appears to have a fixed focal length but can change the field of view parameter in the settings menu prior to start recording but all that it appears to be doing is pixel cropping. Still useful, but a long way from a true optical zoom function.

There seems to be a consensus that the GoPro black is generally considered a better camera however there are some specific features that may make the Drift HD Ghost appeal to kayakers.

1) I don't have a GoPro but I believe it is not waterproof and requires a separate waterproof case. The Drift HD Ghost is a waterproof camera and does not require a separate case.

2) The Drift can physically rotate the image sensor relative to the mount. I don't believe the GoPro can do this.

3) The Drift has a built in color LCD view screen to set up shots and view vids. I believe the GoPro requires you to buy an add on screen for about $80 to do this.

4) The Drift has video tagging. Truly a killer feature for a fisherman.

Please correct me if any of these are incorrect as these were just my conclusions on the GoPro from internet reviews and the product web sites I read before I made a purchase.

The jack that came with the camera, an extension sort of piece, snaps in tight. I doubt splash would hurt it at all. It sure didn't on my other one and that one didn't have a back at all - just a loose fitting rubber cover and an equally loose fitting jack. But again, all I can say is that I haven't had any problems with mine and I've had the older one very wet, just short of actually submerging it.

Digital zoom is standard and can be changed on the fly with two buttons on the camera while filming. The remote may be able to operate it as well. Not sure though. Haven't finished readying everything on the remote yet. I know you can toggle between camera functions with the remote, and yes, that includes video tagging.